Young deaf people s access to television

Transcription

1 In their own words: Young deaf people s access to television Report funded by Red Bee Media Ltd (Formerly BBC Broadcast Ltd) Research carried out by The National Deaf Children s Society November 2005

2 Contents Page Acknowledgements 2 Executive summary 3 1. Background 9 2. Objectives Methodology Participants Deaf children and television Subtitles Sign language interpretation Subtitles and sign language interpretation together 57 Appendices 61 Acknowledgements The NDCS would like to thank: all of the families and schools who completed and returned questionnaires all of the pupils who participated in the focus groups and their teachers who organised and facilitated the events the Red Bee Ltd team the interpreters and stenographers who participated in the focus groups the television companies who allowed us to show clips from their programmes during the focus groups, including BBC, Channel 4, Five, ITV, Jetix Sky, and Turner. 2

3 Executive Summary This qualitative and quantitative research project set out to obtain feedback about deaf children and young people s use and experience of access provision. Specifically it sought to determine what makes good access for children s programmes in terms of subtitle and sign language provision. In the qualitative phase, researchers conducted focus groups with a total of 63 deaf children and young people aged 6-17, as well as 30 hearing pupils some of whom had been educated alongside deaf pupils. The quantitative research involved analysis of 1,207 responses to two self-completion postal questionnaires. One was conducted amongst family members of the NDCS, and one was sent out to educationalists at a wide range of mainstream and special schools. Deaf children form an extremely diverse group. They display a wide variety of needs and preferences when it comes to access to television. Many factors play a role, including chronological age, degree of deafness, chosen method of communication, access to equipment and level of literacy. The principal aim of the project was: To ascertain whether current access services are benefiting children, in which ways, and what improvements could be made to the service The main findings from the questions addressed were: 1. What need is there for access to younger children s programmes for deaf children? Comments from parents indicate that access to TV programmes is vital in supporting deaf young people to be part of everyday life and to join in discussions about TV programmes with their family and peers. Having access was also felt to facilitate deaf children s independence, as they were less reliant on someone else to explain storylines. p. 32 Young deaf people could see the added benefit of having sign language instead of subtitles for young deaf children, who may not have good reading skills p. 43 BSL-using young people s understanding of programmes is increased by having sign language interpretation, as it is their own language p. 46 3

4 2. What makes for good access, with regards to children s programmes? a. Do visual programmes have less need for sign language? Sign language interpretation was thought by parents to be quite hard for younger viewers to follow unless the signer was proportionally large on the screen to allow movements and facial expressions to be seen clearly. p. 54 Parents felt that sign language interpretation could be too fast for young viewers to follow. p. 47 b. At what point are subtitles appropriate for children? Conversely, families also felt that deaf children lost out on what happened visually as they were sometimes too busy reading the subtitles. This was thought especially to be the case for young children who reportedly find the reading difficult, tiring or even boring at times. p. 34 For younger children, or less proficient readers, subtitles can be too quick and the language too difficult. p. 31 Some families suggested that current subtitles were not useful for children under 8 years of age. p % of parents said their children never used subtitles. Those making least use of them are those aged under 5 (69%). Only 11% of this age group were reported to always use subtitles. 61% of children over 11 years of age were said to always do so. p. 24 c. Specific recommendations regarding appropriate approaches to subtitling and signing (e.g. speed, language level, benefits) The majority of parents (62%) felt that the language used in subtitles was appropriate for their child. A slightly higher proportion of parents of severely and profoundly deaf children felt that it was too difficult (34%) compared to children with mild and moderate losses (21%). p. 28 Kick back format (where the image is shrunk on screen, leaving an area where subtitles or sign language interpreters can be displayed without 4

5 obstructing too much of the images) improves the presentation of access provision. p % of parents thought that the captions stayed on the screen for the right length of time. But a significant minority of families (30%) felt that the length of presentation of subtitles on screen was insufficient for their child. p. 30 Their needs, in terms of level and speed of language used, vary for each child. The younger the deaf child, the more simplified the language used needs to be and the longer it should be presented on screen. p. 31 Subtitles not being properly synchronised with the spoken word was identified as a problem by both families and schools. It was felt that this prevented children from using their residual hearing to match the spoken and written words, to take clues from lip-reading, or extract meaning from words from clues in the pictures. p % of parents of deaf children of all ages thought the language used in sign language interpretation was appropriate for their child, while 22% thought it was too difficult. These findings are almost identical to those for subtitles. p. 47 The criticisms of sign language interpretation were similar to those of subtitles in that it can be distracting and obstruct the picture. p. 54 Young people did not like subtitles obstructing any of the action on the screen. This was particularly important when they were watching sports events. p. 34 Deaf young people who used sign language showed a clear preference for this type of access being available and wanted to see more programmes with it broadcast at suitable times for them. p What are the perceptions and experiences to access of deaf and hearing audiences? For many of the young people, both deaf and hearing, it was felt to be important that deaf people should have full access to TV programmes. p. 19 5

6 Picture obstruction caused by the presence of a sign language interpreter was one of the most commonly cited problems with access provision effecting both deaf and hearing viewers p. 21 a. Are certain types of programme more accessible than others? Young people wanted more accessibility to music, in terms of music videos, performances etc, so that they could share in and understand the same culture as their hearing peers. p. 19 Access to sports events is not currently felt to be a priority p. 35, 53 Almost twice the number of children were said to prefer having presenters who used sign language as opposed to having an interpreter on screen. Very few programmes shown in the UK that are presented in sign language. The vast majority of broadcasters currently meet their statutory obligations to provide sign language access to programmes through onscreen interpretation. p. 45, 46 b. What is un/acceptable for hearing viewers? Very few negative concerns about access provision were raised by the hearing young people. p. 20-1, p. 33 The hearing young people did not report specific issues with in-vision sign interpretation being a major distraction from what is going on in the picture p. 56 c. What benefits are there (in addition to access) of having sign language/subtitles for both audiences? Subtitles were seen to have benefits for the rest of the family as the sound on the TV didn t have to be too loud. Also the deaf child interrupted parents viewing less as they did not have to disturb them to ask what was happening throughout a programme. p % of schools felt that watching subtitles had a positive impact on literacy skills for both deaf and hearing children, including those who had poor attention or a particularly visual learning style, as well as pupils whose first language was not English. Teachers felt that having subtitles was particularly beneficial for reinforcing vocabulary, especially new words on a certain topic. 6

7 p. 26 Subtitles are a good support in terms of learning English, in that the written word is seen in context with pictures. p. 27 Signing on programmes was felt by the majority of parents to improve not just their child s but the whole family s signing skills. 78% of family respondents had a hearing child as well as a deaf child, so this is important for communication within the whole family. p.50 Young deaf people who do not use sign language were more open in expressing their dislike for having sign language interpretation on screen, due to their lack of cultural association with it p. 55 Teachers stated that there was a high level of support for the use of television programmes in school. 72% of educationalists endorsed the importance of using TV programmes to support delivery of the curriculum. Despite access being provided for these programmes, use of this facility in schools is very low. p. 17 Parents perceived a cultural benefit to programmes with sign language interpretation. It was seen to raise awareness of deaf people and their language, making it more acceptable to the mainstream. p. 42 Schools felt that there was benefit in having TV programmes signed as it makes them more inclusive for sign language users and help to reduce the stigma attached to BSL users. p. 52 Teachers felt that provision of sign interpretation helped increase the confidence of deaf children and increased their understanding of their own language. p. 52 Key additional findings Deaf young people use a range of methods to access TV programmes. p. 16 Only 3% of families of deaf children felt that access provision was of poor quality. p. 20 7

8 72% of families said that their children used subtitles to access a range of programmes at least some of the time. If this rate held true across the entire population of deaf children it would amount to almost one million young people accessing subtitles in the UK. p. 23 Only 61% of parents said their deaf children know how to turn subtitles on. p. 24 Many families were not aware of how to record programmes with subtitles on. p. 38 In 81% of schools with deaf pupils less than 25% of TV programmes are shown with subtitles on. (Context: 100% of BBC and Channel 4 schools programmes are broadcast with subtitles available) p % of schools do not record programmes with subtitles on. (Context: many schools programmes are broadcast at night and recorded by teachers) p. 38 Only 1% of schools with deaf pupils show programmes with sign language interpretation. p.52 54% of children who prefer to communicate in sign language watch programmes with sign language interpretation whenever they can. 54% of children who communicate orally never watch these programmes. p. 42 Deaf young people wanted to see greater representation of deaf people on television. p. 19 8

9 1. Background Many deaf people rely on subtitles and sign language interpretation and presentation to access television. Earlier research (Dial 888: Subtitling For Deaf Children, S. Gregory and J. Sancho-Aldridge 1998) demonstrated that children under the age of 11 struggled with subtitles as they were currently broadcast, yet seven years on there remains no specific guidelines for subtitling or sign language on children s programmes. The Communications Act 2003, coupled with Ofcom s Code on Television Access Services, will lead to a significant expansion of subtitling and sign language on television over the next ten years, and extends requirements for the first time to many cable and satellite channels. An increasing proportion of programmes including those for children, will, therefore, be subtitled and/or include sign language. Only limited guidance is available in relation to meeting the access needs of deaf children. Whilst Ofcom has announced its intention to review its standards for TV access services in 2006, currently it has no intention to look at drawing up specific standards for children. There is a dearth of research in the area of deaf children s needs. Dial 888 is one of the few pieces of experimental research that has looked specifically at deaf children s comprehension of different levels of subtitles. This study highlighted the need for more work to be done in this area and for wider consultation to be conducted amongst deaf children and young people. There has never before been a piece of research which has looked at these issues from the various aspects of a child s life: home, school and their personal accounts. BBC Broadcast Ltd, therefore, approached NDCS to conduct both a quantitative and a qualitative research study to find out the views and experiences of a range of deaf young people, as well as obtaining opinions from families on subtitling and sign language on television. The study was commissioned to offer a unique perspective that would not only provide more comprehensive data than ever before on levels and trends of use of access to television, but also to offer a voice to deaf children s opinions, experiences and preferences. 9

10 2. Objectives There were three main objectives to the research. What need is there for access to programmes for deaf children? What makes for good access, in particular with regard to children s programmes? What are the perceptions and experiences of signing and subtitling on television of both deaf and hearing audiences? The aim of the study was to gather feedback on current provision and to look at the benefits of the provision and the ways in which improvements could be made to the service. 3. Methodology 3.1 Quantitative phase A two-pronged approach was taken to data collection. Firstly, opinions of NDCS family members were sought, and in addition opinions from schools which had signed up to the NDCS Deaf Friendly Schools project. Secondly, young people who attended both mainstream and special schools were recruited to take part in focus groups. Questionnaires were sent to 8,156 NDCS family members. The questionnaires stated that they were for completion by those families who had deaf children aged up to 18 years old. Those with more than one deaf child were encouraged to go to the NDCS website and complete an online form for each of their other deaf children. There were also details on the website home page asking those who were on the site to fill out a questionnaire. 2,070 schools with deaf students from around the UK signed up to an NDCS project to become deaf friendly and all of these were sent a schools questionnaire. 3.2 Qualitative phase For the qualitative phase of the study, a range of young people took part in focus groups. To facilitate running a number of groups in a variety of geographical locations over a short space of time, the young people were recruited through specific schools. To get a wide range of views young deaf people of different ages, who used different communication types were reruited. Hearing pupils who had been educated alongside deaf pupils were also included in the research, as well as those who had never been in an educational setting with a deaf pupil. 10

11 The children were shown a number of clips of television programmes, from various channels, with different types and styles of access provision: No access Subtitles only Sign language interpretation only Subtitles and sign language interpretation together They were asked for their opinions of these different formats and for their experiences of accessing television programmes. Within this report feedback is detailed from families (from family questionnaires), educationalists (from schools questionnaires) and young people (from focus groups). Comments and quotes used are representative of a number of similar points raised. Young people s quotes are taken verbatim from stenographer scripts (taken from the interpreter s voice-over if the children used sign language). 11

12 4. Participants 4.1 NDCS Family Questionnaire The NDCS questionnaire sample comprised 993 families who responded to the family members questionnaire (a 12% response rate). Responses were received from members across the whole of the UK (see Appendix F) and are felt to be reflective of NDCS members as a whole. A quarter of respondents had children aged years. Q2 How old is your deaf child? 24% 16% 16% 18% 20% 3% 4% Under Not answ ered Approximately one in four deaf children is profoundly deaf. NDCS has a higher representation of members from families of children with severe-profound levels of hearing losses and this is demonstrated in the data. Almost half of the respondents had a child with a profound level of hearing loss, and a further quarter had a child with severe deafness. The deaf children and young people represented by the responses used a wide range of communication methods. In total 51% preferred to use spoken language, 28% to use a mixture of spoken and signed language and 20% preferred to use sign language. 12

13 Q6 How does your child prefer to communicate? 50% 28% 18% 2% 1% 2% British Sign Language Other signing Mixture of signing and speaking Spoken English Other spoken language Not answered Almost half the sample (48%) had a child with some kind of additional need such as visual impairment (18%), degree of learning difficulty (46%) and 6% had Autistic spectrum disorder. 4.2 Schools Questionnaire 214 schools replied to the schools questionnaire, a response rate of 10%. The majority of replies were from mainstream schools (66%), but other types of school were also represented eg resource based (21%), independent or nonmaintained (5%), and maintained special school (5%). There was a bias towards primary schools (66%), with 30% from secondary and lower numbers from preschools (8%) or colleges (3%). The replies to the schools questionnaire were from a variety of educationalists including teachers of the deaf, special educational needs coordinators, head teachers, teaching assistants and learning support assistants pupils were represented in these questionnaires of whom 22% were sign language users. 13

14 4.3 Focus groups 93 children and young people from eight different schools took part in focus group sessions. 63 participants were deaf and 30 hearing. School Deaf / Hearing Frank Barnes Primary School, Camden, London Hawthorne Primary School, Birmingham Oak Lodge School, Wandsworth, London St John's Catholic School for the Deaf, Wetherby, West Yorkshire Craigie High School, Dundee Deans Primary School (children drawn from mainstream schools across West Lothian Hawthorne Primary School, Birmingham St John s Primary School, Spalding, Lincs TOTAL Deaf Hearing *educated alongside deaf pupils Communication Age (years) Deaf Sign Primary (6-11) Deaf Total Primary (8-9) Deaf Sign Secondary (12-17) Deaf Oral Secondary (15-17) No of children 8 Deaf Total Secondary 8 (12-16) Deaf Oral 8 Hearing * - Primary (8-9) Hearing - Primary (8-9) Throughout this report, quotes from family members and schools are responses to open-ended questions in their respective questionnaires. Quotes from the young people are taken from focus group discussions when the young people were shown various clips. Where relevant, details of these clips have been given in brackets. All quotes cited are representative of the key opinions expressed

15 5. Deaf children and television 5.1 Access to television and programmes Responses to the family questionnaire indicated that 54% of deaf children and young people have a television in their bedroom. This compares to 66% of hearing children (Media Smart, 2003). Q9 Is the main TV that your child watches: 35% 35% 18% 11% Analogue Digital terrestrial Digital Satellite Digital cable Not answered 1% In terms of subtitles there is a difference in presentation between analogue and digital set tops. On analogue TV sets subtitles are accessed through Teletext (page 888) and appear in a block font. These sets will also be restricted to the standard 4 or 5 channels. On digital sets there are multichannel options for the viewer and subtitles are presented in the Tiresias font. 67% of deaf children watch non-analogue TV which is slightly higher than the national average of 61.9% (Ofcom, March 2005 survey). 15

16 Q10 When your child is watching the main television in your house, do they? 60% 38% 10% 3% 1% 13% Turn up the volume Lipread Use a loop system Use a radio aid Use an infra-red listening device Have a family member sign for them There were a total of 1248 replies to the question of how children access TV, as respondents could pick more than one answer. Most children who used more than one method to access programmes turned the volume up and used lipreading. 74% of respondents were choosing an auditory input (ie volume, loop, radio aid, infra red) which may suggest that they are not able to rely wholly on the information subtitles give them or that children prefer a range of inputs to access TV. From the school questionnaires it could be seen that a similar strategy was used in educational settings, with 56% of pupils sitting close to the TV which would mean the sound was louder and they could lipread more easily. More pupils were likely to use a radio aid connected to the TV at school than at home. This is likely to be because many pupils only have use of a radio aid when they are at school but do not take it home. A greater number of pupils were also able to have someone available to provide sign language interpretation for them at school as opposed to at home. 16

17 Q8 When students watch TV at school, how do your deaf students access it? Do they? 56% 33% 29% 21% 9% 7% Sit close to the TV Connect radio aid directly to the TV Use subtitles Use signing on screen Have a communication support w orker signing Use an advance script Being able to access TV programmes shown at school is a key issue for deaf children as 72% of school respondents considered this to be an important method of supporting the delivery of the curriculum. 16% said very important, we use it a lot and 56% said quite important, we use it sometimes. Therefore if deaf children are not fully able to access the television programmes shown in school then they are being prevented from having full and equal access to the curriculum. 17

18 Q26 Is your child shown television programmes with subtitles or sign language at school? 32% 33% 18% 11% 6% Yes, subtitles Yes, signing Neither Don't know Not answered Many parents did not know whether or not their child was provided with specific access to television programmes that were shown in school. However, a third knew that subtitles or sign language were not provided for their child and fewer than a quarter said that their child was appropriately supported to access TV programmes used to deliver the curriculum. We don t understand what broadcasts are about, so it s a lot better for us to have the subtitling or in-vision. It makes us equal with hearing people, and everyone is happy then (deaf secondary school-aged signer) Young person s quote 18

19 5.2 Young people s opinions about equality of access to TV programmes Many of the young people spoken to raised the issue of equality. Both hearing and deaf young people felt it was important that deaf people should have full access to TV programmes. If people want to watch programmes and there is no subtitles, they can t watch them. That s not fair because people who are deaf can t watch them (hearing, primary school-aged, with exposure to deafness) It s not fair if we don t have sign language on programmes that hearing impaired children want to watch (hearing, primary school-aged with exposure to deafness) It s a question of equality. Otherwise since all you hearing people can access all your programmes, what do you expect of us? Do you expect us to sit at home and be bored? (deaf, secondary school-aged signer) It s fair for deaf people to understand subtitles. If there s no subtitles deaf people won t understand what hearing people do (deaf oral, secondary school-aged) Young people s quotes Music was one area in particular that all of the young people felt should be made more equal in terms of access. Hearing people get really excited over music. I would like to be able to get involved in that and maybe have a signer there so I could understand what that s all about (deaf, primary school-aged signer) (music with sign) If deaf children say they want to be able to know the words of more music it would be ok to have sign language on videos (hearing, primary school-aged with exposure to deafness) (music with sign) Young people s quotes The other area that most of the deaf young people felt needed to be more equal was with the representation of deaf people on TV. I would like to see deaf people and characters in there because there s so many hearing people. As a deaf person it s like, you know, where is the deaf people? It feels really oppressive to see no representation of deaf people (deaf, secondary school-aged signer) It s interesting to see deaf characters and how they are going to communicate with other people and have their rights and communication rights, and so on, on television. I think I would like to see deaf sign language users in shows, definitely (deaf, secondary school-aged signer) 19

20 Young people s quotes 5.3 Opinions on access provision From the family questionnaires it was found that only 3% of respondents thought that subtitle and sign language provision was of poor quality and not a good reflection of the programme. Although, over half of those who answered felt that the quality of access provision was variable and not always a good reflection of the content of the programme. Encouragingly though, 36% stated that they found the provision to be of high quality. There were no differences in opinion based on their deaf child s age or level of deafness. Q27 Generally, what do you think about the quality of subtitles and/or sign language on the TV your child watches: 45% 36% 17% 3% High quality and a good reflection of what is going on in the programme Variable quality and not always a good reflection of what is going on in the programme Poor quality and not a good reflection of what is going on in the programme Not answered 5.4 What are hearing people s perceptions of TV access services for deaf people? The hearing children were asked what they thought about having subtitles and sign language interpretation on television programmes and the deaf young people were asked what hearing relatives reactions were. It seems that on the whole the hearing people were happy to accept access services on the screen despite the slight inconvenience it causes them. Hearing people find it difficult with the subtitles and they always take it off. You know it s difficult for deaf people if there s no subtitles (deaf primary school-aged signer) 20

21 If there s a deaf person in the family you have to have an in-vision signer. And the family accept that. They get used to it and accept that fact that there s a signer in the corner (deaf, secondary school-aged signer) Deaf young people s quotes I didn t mind the words being there because you are more fixed on the pictures than words (hearing with exposure to deafness) (cartoon with subtitles) It will block out my pictures. Sometimes it will get in the way of the pictures. That would be a problem (hearing with exposure to deafness) Hearing young people s quotes On the whole the hearing children that we spoke to did not consider having subtitles or a sign language interpreter on screen to be a problem. Many of them were able to block it out or enjoyed following the programme that way. Hearing people's perceptions of subtitles and sign interpretation Number of responses Positive Use, but Negative Not answered Type of response From the family responses, a similar reaction was observed. Almost half of respondents felt that having access provided on television programmes was a positive thing, while only a very small number considered access provision to be negative. However there was a large group of responses which could only be categorised as use, but These were families who appreciated the need for access on television programmes and the benefit for their deaf relatives. Therefore they used TV access services but had some negative experiences of this. 21

22 [I m] quite happy to watch with subtitles or sign language but it is sometimes distracting. Although, that is of small account when it gives the deaf child so much information We love to see signing on TV and seek out these programmes. We want to encourage our child to get used to subtitles but, as hearing adults, we find them distracting My husband will switch off the subtitles as he finds they are annoying when watching sport but there are no problems when we all watch together Family comments 5.6 Analyses of the use of TV access services and their presentation In the questionnaires and focus groups, respondents were asked to detail issues about the way subtitles and sign language are presented on screen and their use. Below are the quantitative analyses from the questionnaire responses and discussion of the main issues raised by all groups. These are detailed separately for a) subtitles, and b) sign language interpretation. 22

23 6. Subtitles The use of subtitles was investigated. Opinions on the provision of this type of access were collected from both the family and school questionnaires and the focus groups with young people. Q12 Normally, w hen your child is w atching television, how often do you sw itch on the subtitles? 42% 27% 20% 10% 1% Always Most of t he t ime Some of t he time Never Not answered The above graph shows that 72% of deaf children and young people use subtitles to access programmes at least some of the time. If this rate held true across the entire population of deaf children and young people (calculated as 1,283,973, see appendix A for more details) then this would mean that a total of 924,461, almost one million young people would be accessing subtitles in the UK. Unsurprisingly as children get older, and their ability to read improves, their use of subtitles increases. 23

24 80 Frequency of subtitle use, by age 70 % Always switch subtitles on Never switch subtitles on 0 Under years Over 11 age group When the breakdown is by the level of the child s deafness it shows that almost half of the children with severe or profound levels of deafness are using subtitles all of the time. It is interesting that there is not a significant difference in the number of children with mild or moderate losses using subtitles to some degree compared to children with severe or profound losses (63% compared to 75%). It is only the regularity with which children use subtitles that differs with level of deafness (those with mild/moderate losses more likely to only use them some of the time compared to children with severe/profound losses). The use of subtitles is not, however, dependent on communication type. The number of children using subtitles is not significantly different whether the child uses sign language (46% always use), spoken language (38% always use) or a mixture (48% always use). Despite the relatively high reported rates of use only 61% of families claimed their deaf children know how to switch subtitles on. 6.1 The use of subtitles The young people spoken to were asked to explain their use of subtitles and the importance of this type of access to them. If I want to understand it I put the subtitles on to make it much easier to understand. Without the subtitles I don t know what they re saying (deaf secondary school-aged signer) (child magazine programme with no access) It s easier to help deaf people to understand what they are saying with subtitles (deaf oral secondary school-age) Young people s quotes 24

25 From the family responses it is clear that subtitles can allow deaf children and young people to follow programmes that they want to watch on TV. This is especially important where viewers cannot lipread characters or the characters have accents that are difficult to understand. They also clarify the language being used and help deaf children s language development and understanding of conversational turn-taking. Families felt that by using subtitles deaf children improve their reading ability and range of vocabulary. Subtitles are particularly useful when there is music or background noise on a programme and this is not just helpful for deaf members of a family. Understanding what is happening, learning English format and grammar Without the subtitles Adam would not benefit from TV programmes [Subtitles are] vital to understanding any programme and obtain information about what is happening in the world It has the added bonus of improving reading even with hearing children Family comments Similarly, school responders felt that having subtitles on programmes increased access and therefore improved understanding and participation. They felt that this was not only true for deaf pupils but also those who had poor attention or who cannot understand different accents. Teachers felt subtitles were an important part of inclusive teaching practice. An incentive to read, they ask what words are All pupils can share in the programme despite their hearing range. It should be seen as normal and not unusual. You are making reasonable adjustments for the pupils and the disability act School comments 6.2 Reading skills and subtitles 53% of families feel that their child has learnt, or had reinforced, new words from watching subtitles. 13% of families did not feel that use of subtitles fulfilled this role. 25

26 Q14 Do you think watching subtitled television programmes has an impact on children's literacy? 68% 23% 1% 8% Yes, a positive impact Yes, a negative impact No Not answered 68% of school respondents did feel that watching subtitles has a positive impact on children s literacy. They felt that use of subtitles on programmes meant: that literacy improved; the children learn about conversations and turn-taking; the children were more able to differentiate between similar sounding words (which improves understanding, writing and reading skills), and that they allow inclusion on a similar level to that of hearing pupils. The 8% who felt there was no positive impact were responders representing nonfluent readers, who were either very young or had additional disabilities. It is interesting that almost two thirds of teachers spoke about the positive impact subtitles also had for hearing pupils. They cited implications including: an increase in the desire and ability to read; improved spelling; helping visual learners and raising deaf awareness amongst all pupils. Having subtitles on the screen was felt to improve reading and literacy skills in all pupils especially in terms of helping match the spoken word to the written. Teachers felt that having subtitles was particularly beneficial for reinforcing vocabulary, especially new words on a certain topic. Teachers detailed how subtitles could help all pupils in the class who had a visual learning style. In current education much emphasis is placed on tailoring the teaching approach to the individual s learning style, and subtitles were of great benefit in allowing visual learners to access the same resources. By having subtitles on screen it reduces the problems of background noise, either on the programme or in the 26

27 classroom. Children are also given an additional clue to tell similar sounding words apart by simultaneously hearing the word and seeing its spelling. Enables access and a useful aid for learning. Visual literacy is particularly important for boys Other pupils apart from deaf, can see spelling, key words etc. Visual learners would benefit and seeing the word reinforces the learning of punctuation, standard English etc Some pupils learn by listening, others by reading. Pupils have different ways of learning It removes barriers to learning and suggests to hearing children there are other ways of communicating. It moves towards inclusive teaching School comments The young people themselves highlighted the benefits of subtitles in terms of how they helped with learning. Some words I didn t understand. With a new word it doesn t matter, you keep reading and it s good practise and later on in life you get to understand what those words mean (deaf primary school-aged signer) (school programme with subtitles) You are learning a lot more English there. It helps with your writing. When you have got the colours and coloured subtitles you learn about how different characters communicate as well (deaf secondary school-aged signer) (soap with signing) Definitely it helps me learn English (deaf secondary school-aged signer) (soap with signing) I m always asking my mum, what does it mean that word? My mum explains and it helps me learn what the word means (deaf oral secondary school-aged) Subtitles made me improve my listening and follow the talking and the subtitles at the same time (deaf oral secondary school-aged) Deaf young people s quotes The language level of subtitles was examined to see if all deaf children found them to be such an aid to access and learning. 27

28 % Perception of difficulty of subtitles by age 2-5 years 6-8 years 9-11 years age group years years Too difficult About right Too easy With age the number of deaf children who find the language level of subtitles too difficult decreases and the number who find them about right increases. Around the age of eight years some children begin to find the language too easy, although numbers of young people in this position is consistency low (less than 10%). Some parents mentioned in their comments that they felt subtitles were not useful to use with deaf children under the age of eight. Q14 Generally, do you think subtitles on the programmes your child watches regularly use language that is: 76% 63% 61% 59% Mild Moderate Severe Profound 14% 9% 12% 20% 0% 2% 1% 2% 27% 24% 15% 14% Too difficult About right Too easy Not answered Although level of deafness and literacy levels may be thought to be linked, there were no significant differences in the ability to follow subtitles based on level of deafness. Overall between around 60% and 75% of children with any degree of hearing loss found the language used in subtitles about right. 28

29 What is not clear however, is whether the children are watching age-appropriate TV programmes, ie are they watching programmes that are meant for children their age or that their hearing peers are watching? More research is needed into of deaf children s reading of subtitles and ways of facilitating access to age appropriate programmes. This is actually quite difficult to assess, especially in comparison to hearing children s comprehension of programmes. From this research an area highlighted as needing further examination is provision of subtitles for children under eight years of age. Teachers felt that in some cases the literacy levels needed to keep up with subtitles were too great. This showed in the fact that they think for a proportion of students (especially deaf students who may have low literacy levels) the words and sentence structures used are too complicated and the subtitles are on the screen for too short an amount of time. If deaf students have additional literacy problems the subtitles are pointless. They can t read them or can t read them fast enough. Distract from picture, visual clues and lipreading etc School comment 6.3 Speed of subtitles presentation The length of presentation on screen was also examined. 29

30 Also do they stay on screen? 47% 30% 21% Not long enough About the right time For too long Not answered 2% In total 47% of parents felt that the captions stayed on the screen for the right length of time for their child. There is however a significant number (30%) of families who feel that the length of presentation of subtitles on screen is insufficient for their child. This illustrates the variation in children s needs. When the findings are broken down by the age of the child a clearer pattern of those needs is revealed. There were more families of children under the age of six reporting that the subtitles did not stay on the screen long enough, than those who felt they were on for the right amount of time for their child. However by the age of 6-8 years, more families felt the subtitles were on long enough and this continued to decrease with age, as the percentage feeling they were on for the right amount of time increased. It is interesting that even by the age of years 30% of families do not think subtitles are on the screen for long enough to provide access for their child. 30

31 Length of time subtitles stay on screen, by child age Not long enough % Under years 6-8 years 9-11 years age group years years About the right time For too long The speed of the subtitles presentation and the difficulty in reading them at speed was causing some young people to struggle to follow programmes. Both primary and secondary aged respondents found this, although it was more predominant in those who used sign language as their preferred communication. It s really hard. I tried to read the subtitles and they have big long words and I think what does that mean? (deaf primary school-aged signer) They were going too quick and it would have been impossible to read them and look at the pictures. I enjoyed just looking at the pictures (deaf primary schoolaged signer) Sometimes with subtitles the words are very difficult to understand. I understand it properly when I have the interpreter (deaf secondary school-aged signer) Some young viewers may find the speed of that too difficult to keep up with (deaf secondary-aged signer)(cartoon with signing) Young people s quotes 31

32 6.4 Benefits of subtitles Other than the benefits in literacy many families detailed a number of additional bonuses that are of major importance to deaf children and young people. Families felt that watching programmes with subtitles allowed the young people to feel equal to hearing viewers and able to be part of everyday life and discussions about what s going on in TV programmes with their peers. Having subtitles allows deaf children to take part in family discussions about programmes they are watching as well as increasing their independence as they don t always need someone to explain what s happening. With subtitles deaf children and young people can enjoy watching TV programmes. What are the benefits of subtitles? Better understanding and improved pleasure and involvement. Independence understands without need of adult to explain or interpret Understanding! Having similar access to hearing members of family, making TV a shared experience Can follow what is being said. Social benefits of discussing programmes with friends To feel included when watching with entire family. We encourage hearing families to switch them on as we believe they re an aid to reading. We like the fact that colours are used to indicate different people speaking Family comments There were also benefits for the rest of the family as the sound on the TV didn t have to be so loud and the deaf child interrupted less with their viewing of the programme as they didn t have to ask questions all the way through. Some families also felt that they themselves were helped to understand programmes by reading the subtitles, for example when there was a lot of background noise. 6.5 Use of subtitles by hearing children Following from the school respondents reporting that they felt there were benefits for both deaf and hearing students, the hearing young people were also asked about their experience of subtitles on TV programmes. If somebody said a word on the TV and you missed it then you can read the word, what it says on the subtitles (hearing primary school-aged young person familiar with deafness) (cartoon with subtitles) 32

33 Sometimes they speak really low and quiet and slang and if you can see it along the bottom it s easier to read (hearing primary school-aged young person not familiar with deafness) Hearing young people s quotes As a proportion of family respondents had detailed that they had issues with access provision in general, the hearing children were asked for their experiences of and opinions on subtitles being on screen. There were no differences in opinion based on whether or not the hearing children had been educated alongside deaf peers. Every news programme has words over the pictures anyway. So I m used to it (hearing primary school-aged young person not exposed to deafness) (children s news programme with subtitles) I didn t notice them because I was too busy watching the programme about Destiny s Child Hearing primary-age young person (not exposed to deafness) (children s news programme with subtitles) I think it was brilliant because I could easily block out all the writing when I looked at the pictures Hearing primary-age young person (exposed to deafness) (child drama with subtitles) It was better than normal because you didn t always need to read it. But if you re deaf you can read the words Hearing primary-age young person (not exposed to deafness) (child drama with subtitles) Hearing young people s quotes 33

34 6.6 Obstruction of picture by subtitles As far as families and schools were concerned, the main disadvantage with having subtitles, other than that they are not on all programmes, is that they can: distract from what s going on in the picture, obstruct additional information shown on screen (e.g names, headlines, questions on Who wants to be a millionaire? ) and conceal gestures (used to determine the exact meaning of the words that are being used and giving a clue to the speakers intention). Heavy reliance on subtitles means pupils miss inference, context, comic moments etc School comment Families feel that deaf children lose out on watching a lot of what s happening in the picture as they are reading the subtitles. Especially for young children the reading can be difficult and tiring, with many families suggesting that they are not usable for children under 8 years of age. Reading ability limits what words child reads. Gets bored easily. Reading subtitles is like work! Need good reading ability and to be able to speed read as people speak quickly. Subtitles need to be quick to keep up and convey the correct meaning Don t always keep in time on news and live shows. Obstruct views. Spelling not always accurate. Not all children s shows have subtitles Family comments This obstruction issue raises the question of where the subtitles should be placed on the screen. Young people did not like the subtitles to cover any of the action but agreed that at the bottom was their preferred placement. What they did not like was when the subtitles moved, ie within a programme being placed on different parts of the screen. It was annoying because they kept dodging from the middle to the top to the bottom (hearing primary school-aged) (cartoon with subtitles) Sometimes the subtitles are going in the middle and covering the mouth. I don t understand what they have said (deaf oral secondary school-aged) Young people s quotes 34

35 This issue was raised most often with particular reference to sports programmes. The young people agreed that access provision for such events was frequently more of a hindrance than a help. For example, with football they wanted all of the pre-, mid- and post-match analyses either signed or subtitled but none of the commentary during the game itself. It went over the scoreline, the subtitles did, and it went over how long the actual time was (hearing primary school-aged) (live football with subtitles) When the ball goes on it and the subtitles are in the way it might be a goal or let it in (deaf oral secondary school-aged) (live football with subtitles) What was going on in the football match was not the same as they were saying (hearing primary school-aged)(live football with subtitles) Young people s quotes In terms of placement of subtitles it would seem that overlapping the picture in any way is an issue for all viewers. Having a transparent or no backing prevents this blocking but also reduces the clarity of the subtitles. 6.7 Timing and synchronisation of subtitles The issue of subtitle provision for live sports events was not just a problem of what the subtitles were blocking but also about their relevance to the action. This lack of syncronisation was raised by many of the family respondents. A feature they dislike, from both their own perspective and that of their deaf child, is that subtitles in general are not fully synchronised with the images being shown. This can prevent the deaf viewer from simultaneously lipreading, can lead to confusion if the words do not match what s happening with the picture and can be very irritating for hearing viewers if the subtitles come up too early giving the answer to quiz questions, or the punchline to a comedy sketch. Obstructing the picture. Many subtitles use different words to those that are actually spoken. With a child who uses lipreading this is confusing Family comment 35

36 What was happening was it was behind what he was saying. He was saying stuff and a minute later the words were coming up on the screen. It was quite a distraction Deaf oral secondary-aged young person Again they are not matching exactly the time code. The timing of the speech isn t matching the timing of the subtitle Deaf signing secondary-aged young person (soap with subtitles and signing) We don t want a delay really. I mean you just give up in the end and you might get a feeling of distress or upset by missing out. I don t think it s good enough subtitling Deaf signing secondary-aged young person (live music with subtitles) Young people s quotes Subtitles not being properly synchronised with the spoken word was a problem also cited by school respondents as it meant deaf children could not use their residual hearing to match the spoken word with the written and neither could they extract the exact meaning from the words, as the clues from the pictures were lost. These issues raise a number of problems. Subtitling for live events is wanted with as small a delay as possible but it also needs to be accurate which could lengthen the delay. Also having total word-for-word subtitling increases the number of words needed on screen so decreases the length of time words are on screen requiring quicker and more competent reading. The readability can be improved for children if the text is simplified. This however limits the ability to follow lip patterns and leads to inequality as deaf children are not accessing the exact same level of information as hearing children. What is most important is that the pictures match with the words, so that the children can get as much of a clue about meaning as possible. 6.8 Accuracy of subtitles Family respondents claimed that subtitles often contain spelling mistakes. This seems to be primarily a problem for programmes that are subtitled live. It is also in this situation that the subtitles can be quite delayed. They are also prone to freezing on screen, coming up in the wrong order, or, on rare occasions, for the wrong programme. Viewers report that it is annoying too that they have to be turned on again when they change channel (depending on TV set up). 36